Heartland Community College receives $1.2 million estate gift for nursing scholarships

Heartland Community College in Normal is receiving a planned gift of $1.2 million from the estate of Bud and Fran Davis, one of the largest gifts from a single donor in the college’s history.^{1, 2} The money will create the Bud & Fran Davis nursing scholarship and support the college’s health sciences programs.^{1, 2}

The college announced the gift at a news conference on campus Thursday.¹ Melvin “Bud” Davis, who held a leadership role at the Farnsworth Group, died in 2014.^{1, 2} Frances “Fran” Davis, a McLean County native and Illinois State University graduate who taught at Trinity Lutheran School in Bloomington and in the Tri-Valley and LeRoy school districts, died in 2025 at 95.^{1, 2}

Why the family gave

The gift honors the care the couple received from Heartland graduates, according to the college.^{1, 2} Their son, Pastor Jim Davis, said his parents had quietly amended their will decades earlier and that the family kept the gift a secret, WGLT reported.¹

Some years after the nursing program began, Davis said, his parents were impressed by a new nurse at their doctor’s office who turned out to be a Heartland graduate.¹ The next year, while Fran was in the hospital for surgery, she met a nursing assistant who was a single mother of two working full time while taking classes at Heartland, he told WGLT.¹ His parents decided then that “we really need to support this program and help people,” Davis said.¹

Before his father died, Bud Davis asked his son, as power of attorney and executor of the estate, to make sure the money went to Heartland at the right time, according to WGLT.¹

What the college says

“Heartland nursing and nursing assistant graduates cared for the Davis family, and their compassion and commitment made an impact,” Heartland President Keith Cornille said, according to 25 News Now.² “We are grateful that they chose to carry on that legacy of care by contributing to our students who will be the caregivers of the future.”²

Cornille said the endowed scholarship will pay for students to go through the nursing program for many years and will help the health sciences program grow, WGLT reported.¹ He noted that Heartland graduates tend to stay and work in the community, in clinics, hospitals, emergency medical services and other health fields.¹

In 2026, Heartland nursing graduates had a 96% pass rate on the NCLEX licensure exam, and the college’s nursing assistant program had 268 completions, the most in its history, according to WGLT.¹